John Evans at Gallery Henoch

May 4, 2011

John Evans recently opened a one-man show at Gallery Henoch. His work is a welcome diversion from Henoch’s concentration on ultra-realism.

Evans is an American artist who received a BFA at Boston University. He has had many solo exhibitions throughout the US since 1976. He has also participate in a large number of group exhibitions since 1985. His work is in the Smithsonian, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Fogg Museum, and many others as well as a large number of premiere corporate and private collections. He has been the subject of articles in Art News, Art in America and American Art Collector. So let us agree that John Evans is the real deal.

This show concentrated on landscapes and lotus pools. Clearly, the lotus pools were the stars of the show.

Evans’ work merges the real world and the world as we want it, achieving this principally through the use of color. Purple elephant ear leaves add a touch of the dream world to a lotus pool. Circles of red differentiate underwater lavender leaves but add vibrancy to our imaginary soothing world. Purple and blue reflections tell us we’re in a world of peace.

His landscapes include farm fields and sea scenes. Evans use of color is simply stunning. We have turquoise field borders, lavender roads, red seas, lime seas, purple trees and white boats. There is an element of stylistic naivety and flat dimensionality which is most interesting in some paintings. Others are masterpieces of reality.

Since he paints in France, I’m curious whether Evan’s work is influenced by Katya Buteau Zucker or whether her work is influenced by Evans. To a large extent, their verbiage is similar. The difference is that Evans world is softer and gentler. Wonderful work for all of us who live in a harsh world.